1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for controlling articles of equipment for use in surgery, and to a method of controlling such articles during surgery.
2. Description of the Related Art
Care must be taken during surgery performed on human or animal bodies to ensure that no article of equipment which is used during the surgery is left unintentionally in a cavity in the body of the human or animal. A Code of Practice overseen by the UK Central Council governs procedures which are used in hospitals in the United Kingdom to control equipment used in surgery. Such equipment includes swabs, sutures and surgical instruments. The procedures involve two nurses who are required to count the articles of equipment manually, and to write a list of the counted articles on a wall board. After surgery has been completed, repeated checks are made to ensure that all articles of equipment which were counted before surgery can be found.
Certain articles of equipment are used to absorb body fluids' which are lost during surgery. Generally such fluid is blood. It can be desirable to monitor the degree of fluid loss during surgery and for this reason, the articles of equipment formed from absorbent material are commonly weighed before and after use. Accurate calculation of the amount of body fluid which has been lost obviously requires accurate identification of the article in question so that its weight before use can be determined. As part of the counting procedure, it is common for articles of absorbent material to be stored on a rack after use: a risk of infection is associated with this technique, because of the tendency of the absorbed body fluids to be released from the articles while on the rack.
GB-A-2069842 discloses a method of detecting surgical swabs such as spones used to absorb body fluids during surgery. The swabs are impregnated with a heavy metal salt such as barium sulphate, and the method involves exposing the patient to X-rays which are absorbed directly by the salt. This document does not ad dress the problem of controlling articles such as swabs during surgery. It does however recognise the problems which can a rise through inaccurate control and to minimise those problems, it suggests a technique which involves exposure of a patient to X-rays.
It is, of course widely recognised that unnecessary exposure of patients to X-rays should be avoided.